Skip to main content

Wine Tasting (Week 9)

As a continuation from last week, I'm going to review a couple of piss cheap white Zinfandels. I ended up at the liquor store with a couple of friends looking for something to drink for the night and we came up with the idea of getting a couple wines of the same varietal at different price levels and comparing them. For the absolutely dirt cheap one we picked out an Arbor Mist Strawberry White Zin and for a slightly more upscale but still conservative one we picked up Sutter Home's White Zin.

We'll start with Arbor Mist because theres not much to say about it. The artificial strawberry flavor overpowered just about everything else. It basically just tasted like a strawberry apple juice. The only Zin trait that was really able to power through was a slight peppery aftertaste, but it was just barely there. To be fair though, the bottle was less than $5, so what else could you expect. If you like strawberry apple juice, I'd say this is a steal for you.





As for the Sutter Home, like the other Sutter Home's I've reviewed on here, it was nothing special, but still serviceable. It had a slight floral and apricot smell, which was pleasant and smooth. The pepper in the taste was underwhelming, but the balanced apricot acidity and tannic finish still made it enjoyable with just a hint of bite. At $8 its decent, but don't expect anything spectacular.













Wines Reviewed:
Arbor Mist Strawberry White Zin: https://www.totalwine.com/wine/fruit-wine/fruit-blends/arbor-mist-strawberry-white-zinfandel/p/19940750?s=101

Sutter Home White Zin: https://www.sutterhome.com/wines/white-zinfandel/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Wine Tasting (Week 4)

This week, some friends decided to throw a little dinner party, so I volunteered to pick out some wines to try and pair with the meal. This was my first chance getting to really try my hand at pairing, so I was excited to give it a go. We ended up eating lemon pepper chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables, so I decided to try it with a Sauvignon Blanc. However, I also had to be fairly careful in picking out wines, because the group of people I was dining with are notoriously averse to dry wines and red wines in general. Due to this, I just decided to go with a Gewürztraminer on its own for a safe sweet dessert wine. So for the Sauvignon Blanc, I chose a 2015 vintage from Carving Board in California. I found it on sale at one of our local wine stores for $12 instead of $14, which made me a little wary. But, the flavor profile for it that I initially found noted its strong lemon component and floral notes, which I felt was a nice balance between appropriateness for the dish and th...

Howdy Y'all!

Howdy y'all. My name is Thomas Young and I am relatively new to the more complex aspects of wine. I drink it on occasion, so I can tell you the basic differences between a red and a white, but beyond that I'm clueless. The biggest turn off for me in the wines I've had have been being too dry or too sweet. I can appreciate a dry wine and how it may compliment other tastes, but after that first sip, it just becomes a struggle to keep drinking. It's similar for really sweet wines: I really enjoy the first few sips, but once the sweetness gets to me its tough to finish it off. Something nice and mellow with subtler flavors is my general go to. Honestly, I just hope to learn as much as I can in this class. I like anthropology and history, so I'm excited to learn about wine's history, but I also just plain like eating, so getting a better understanding of what goes into the flavors of a wine and how they relate to food is a big plus as well.

Wine Tasting (Week 3)

All right boys, we're back at it again. This week I bring you one mediocre California Sauvignon Blanc from Leese-Fitch, and probably my favorite wine that I've had so far, the 'Zinzilla' California Zinfandel. We'll get the more underwhelming one out of the way first. Leese-Fitch's 2017 Sauvignon Blanc was by no means bad, especially for its price range around $10. Their winery describes it as "...thoroughly refreshing, with aromas of guava, papaya and pear. These enticing characteristics are followed by vibrant citrus notes of grapefruit and lime on the palate, which enhance the wine’s juicy body and highlight its crisp, balanced acidity," and I find that fairly accurate. It's nose had a much stronger vegetal smell than the description implies, and I couldn't quite place it; somewhere between cut grass and a tangy herb. Its taste however, was in fact distinctly citrusy, with heavy acidity. It wasn't necessarily off balance, but something ...